


How to Succumb to Wanderlust But Also Never Leave Home Behind (Literally)

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerith Month 2018 [23]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Hell House, Multi, No Dialogue, Old Age, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Aeris reflects on her life and roaming the Planet.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Series: Aerith Month 2018 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009521
Kudos: 3





	How to Succumb to Wanderlust But Also Never Leave Home Behind (Literally)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Through the Years'

Aeris bent with her knees, lifting the chair, careful to not hurt her back during the Eighth Heaven clean-up. Cloud was off doing some maintenance or other, Tifa busy with the washing up. Aeris's other chores long since done, the flower shop already closed for the night, everything watered and ready for tomorrow. One other task remained after clean-up before a good night’s sleep. They could afford to stay a few more days here before they moved on - joint wanderlust always kept them moving and they never left home behind. Shocking to think thirty years gone almost without realisation.

The passage of time could only help them. Ageing was a part of life seemingly destined never to arrive for her; years passed but little changed. The worry, the unnerving thought of a time bemoaning a past now lost. To no longer possess the same level of energy or the same interests, or to experience the fading of memories, increased risks to health and limitations on food. Her body no longer the same. Something she would avoid if she could. There were magics, or at least a suspicion certain spells might halt or slow the aging process. But the time to use those tricks never seemed to arrive. Little things changed; her skin seeming to need more moisturizing than she ever remembered, but never a point when everything altered. Until she cleared the threshold. She was old. Well, older.

Grey flecks ran the length of her hair, the edges of her eyes retained permanent crinkles. Limbs were stiffer in the morning and napping became far too appealing most days. More to come, but she had reached this point so slowly the fear of it happening had never struck, and now it seemed a pointless concern. Her wardrobe changed gradually over time to accommodate changes in taste, though her ribbon persisted.

Strange to reflect how quickly she drifted from recognition. Even in the aftermath of Meteor. Even travelling with Cloud and Tifa, the pair responsible for bringing her out of the abandoned Cetra capital. The myth of her – the myth of the Flower Girl who was the Last Cetra and who gave her life for the world – overshadowed her. She could not be Aeris Gainsborough. Aeris was pure, innocent, demure, chaste. Aeris Gainsborough would never get drunk or swear or flirt. Aeris Gainsborough would never laugh like that and would certainly never invite her two closest companions to bed at the same time. Impossible. Nor would she share a bed with both each night. The woman only a little older than the lost Aeris Gainsborough did and therefore could not be her.

It had not been as if she had lied at first either; people asked her name and she replied without thinking. They always smiled with amusement, played along and left with a shake of their head. From rumours her partners overheard, most assumed she was attempting to use her own name to sell her flowers. An interesting idea. But not everyone reacted positively, some taking offence. Absurd. But she needed a new name, though no assumed name ever stuck; Aeris went through a phase of changing her given name on a whim. Soon she learned as the one clearly in charge her designation became the Witch. Sufficient enough, if it did rankle a little. Those most important to her knew the truth.

She might have returned to life, but the world was irrevocably altered by passing beyond and coming back. Food and colours intensified post-resurrection. So too was awareness of the world beneath her feet – and a number of the inhabitants. Like Mom’s house. The house Aeris inhabited for near fourteen years had a secret the likes of which she never might have guessed. A tamed monster her mother continued to feed and care for through long years. She reached out to it and it responded. It remembered. It offered a solution to a divided desire; return home to her mother and make up for lost time – and to see the parts of the Planet she was unable to previously. Cloud, Tifa, Aeris and Mom could travel together. Little tied Mom to the devastated Midgar and its environs any longer. Neither Cloud nor Tifa had a home. So, Mom’s home became their home.

Aeris finished stacking the chairs on the table and ventured back towards the kitchen. A stack of appliance manuals, bags of loose change and odd socks lay on a shelf. Aeris swept a selection up and placed them in a specific, marked cupboard with a smile. The house was old too; it needed it’s strength to get them to their next destination.


End file.
